(Yicai Global) March 6 -- Shanghai's biotech firms are making great strides to supply China with Covid-19 virus detection kits, new vaccines, intelligent medical equipment and free cloud-based services, an official from the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee said today.

Companies such as Shanghai ZJ Bio-Tech and BioGerm Medical Biotechnology are at the forefront of developing Covid-19 virus testing kits and they have already supplied 3.6 million to the nation and overseas, Chief Engineer Lu Min said at a press conference today.

The development of a new generation of testing products has been completed and an application to the National Medical Products Administration filed, he added.

Biopharmaceutical firms Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding, Siwei Shanghai Biotechnology, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences and Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals are making good progress in the development of a vaccine and antibody-based drugs, Lu said.

Artificial intelligence startups Yitu Technology and SenseTime Group among others have developed medical image screening and benchmark temperature measurement devices which are already in use in hospitals and public health centers in Hubei province, the disease's epicenter, he added.

Big data firms such as Wonder Information, Wangsu Science & Technology and Ucloud Information Technology have made their data resources and cloud services available free of charge, providing immense support to epidemic prevention and control efforts.

Of the city's 12,861 tech firms, 90 percent are back at work after the epidemic delayed companies from reopening after the Chinese New Year holiday, Lu said. Almost all those in the fields of biomedicine, integrated circuits and AI have resumed operations.

Editor: Kim Taylor